Chapter 25

Bai Siyi looked at Huo Xingming. Huo Xingming also looked at Bai Siyi.

The two stood in the pitch-dark alley, facing each other under the dim glow of a streetlamp.

After a long minute, Huo Xingming, blushing furiously, reached up and lightly touched the side of his face.

He realized that the temporary tattoo, which was already a bit loose, had gotten rubbed off when he was showing off with his wristband earlier.

Now, half of it was still stuck to his face, while the other half had peeled off and was fluttering in the night breeze.

Huo Xingming: “……”

He instinctively glanced around—fortunately, there were no cameras. He couldn’t even imagine how humiliating it would be if the live stream viewers had caught this moment.

Awkwardly, he peeled the tattoo off his face, as if it were burning his fingers, and quickly stuffed it into his pants pocket. Keeping his head down, he didn’t even dare to look at Bai Siyi’s expression.

Bai Siyi spoke up quietly, “There’s still one on your neck.”

Huo Xingming: “……”

His face turned an even deeper shade of red. Silently, he tore off the tattoo on his neck and just as swiftly shoved it into his pocket.

They stood facing each other. Bai Siyi held the pink wig in his hand, clutching his jacket tightly around his chest.

A few minutes passed before Bai Siyi finally broke the awkward silence. “You… No, wait, you—”

He paused for two seconds, staring at Huo Xingming. Now that the tattoos were gone, Huo Xingming looked much more pleasing to the eye—and undeniably more handsome.

Bai Siyi: “Seriously, what were you thinking? Why would you put something like that on your face?”

When he first saw it, he hadn’t even doubted its authenticity for a second.

In fact, he had actually suspected that Huo Xingming had been tricked into taking a shady path because he couldn’t pay back that million-yuan debt—offering up his face for a tattoo artist to practice on…

Damn. He had been feeling guilty about it this whole time, only to find out it was just a sticker?!

Bai Siyi suddenly felt a little annoyed!

But then he thought about that million yuan… and the fake chest he had secretly thrown away just moments ago…

Forget it, forget it. They were both equally ridiculous. No one had the right to judge anyone here.

Bai Siyi sighed.

Huo Xingming was beyond embarrassed.

Guiltily, he mumbled, “I just… I just thought…”

He couldn’t bring himself to admit that the reason he wore the fake tattoos was to make himself look more “undateable.”

He paused for two seconds, then guiltily muttered, “I just thought… this looked cooler?”

Bai Siyi: “……”

Expressionless, Bai Siyi asked, “If you think it’s so cool, why not get a real one? Why are you sticking on fake ones? What are you, a grade-schooler?”

Huo Xingming immediately had something to say about that. He straightened his back and replied confidently, “No way, if you have tattoos, you can’t take the civil service exam.”

Bai Siyi: “……”

Bai Siyi: “???”

He stared at Huo Xingming in shock, speechless for several seconds—not because he had nothing to say, but because he was completely dumbfounded.

Huo Xingming sneaked a glance at Bai Siyi before adding, “I have a bachelor’s degree, I’m 1.92 meters tall, my vision is 5.1, and I’m in good health. Maybe I could become an air combat officer!”

Becoming a pilot had been his childhood dream—what boy hadn’t imagined flying?

But unfortunately, he was of mixed descent, held a foreign nationality, and—more importantly—his father would never allow him to join the military. That small family-run company was still waiting for him to take over.

Speaking of that, Huo Xingming grumbled, “Actually, being in the navy wouldn’t be bad either. I even won a children’s swimming championship before.”

Bai Siyi: “……”

He stared at Huo Xingming for a long time, saying nothing.

Huo Xingming started to feel nervous. “Bai Siyi, are you mad at me?”

He leaned in closer, looking at him anxiously. “You’re really mad? No way, right? I already explained everything—can you forgive me?”

Bai Siyi wasn’t angry. He was just feeling extremely conflicted.

He walked a few steps in silence, only speaking when Huo Xingming was still rambling about forgiveness. “You said you have a bachelor’s degree. When did you graduate?”

Huo Xingming quickly answered, “This year! I’m 22, you know that, right?”

Of course, Bai Siyi knew. He just hadn’t expected that Huo Xingming was a fresh graduate.

Bai Siyi stopped again, his expression complicated and full of confusion. “You’re a new graduate, so you should be able to find a job. Why are you working construction? What were you thinking? Are you just doing this for the experience?”

Huo Xingming froze. He stared blankly at Bai Siyi.

Yeah… why?

He was a college graduate, so why did he set himself up as a construction worker?

Even if he wanted to work, he could’ve been a waiter at Haidilao instead.

Stumped by the question, Huo Xingming stood there in a daze for a long time.

“I…”

Under Bai Siyi’s gaze, he suddenly didn’t know what to say.

“Construction work isn’t even fun… I just… had nothing better to do.”

Bai Siyi shook his head. “Forget it. Let’s go quickly. Once we’re out, we’ll contact the production team to pick us up. We’ve already wasted enough time.”

Huo Xingming felt like Bai Siyi was angry, but he had no idea why.

Of course, even if he did know, he might not have understood.

He couldn’t grasp what it felt like for someone who had once excelled academically and loved reading to suddenly have no books to study. For years, the people he envied most weren’t the rich, but those who were “educated.”

Someone who never went to college would always feel a sense of inferiority when facing university students and corporate professionals. Hearing others speak fluent foreign languages would spark admiration. Even if outsiders never looked down on him, he himself felt stuck in the mud, painfully aware that he wasn’t “presentable.”

His biggest dream was to go back three years in time and fight for another chance—any possibility to change his fate.

But… it was okay.

Bai Siyi silently thought to himself, He’s only 19. He’s still young. There were still many ways for him to continue studying. If necessary, he could even study abroad.

As long as you have money, anything is possible.

Bai Siyi quickly led Huo Xingming onto a quiet street. It was a secluded area, rarely crowded. He pulled Huo Xingming into a corner and said in a low voice, “Call the production team and send them our location.”

Sensing Bai Siyi’s bad mood, Huo Xingming obediently took out his phone and contacted the staff.

In less than half an hour, the production team’s car arrived. The crew members inside nearly burst into tears when they saw them. “You two ran too fast! The moment we chased after you, you were already gone. You scared us to death!”

Bai Siyi felt a little guilty. “Sorry, we panicked back then.”

Huo Xingming added, “The bar was packed with people staring at us. It was terrifying!”

Those gazes had been truly unsettling.

Their live stream had already been shut down since it was past the scheduled end time. But because of this incident, the two of them had gone viral again.

#TheProductionTeamLostHuoAndBai

That hashtag was now sitting at the very top of Weibo’s trending list. Since viewers couldn’t see them in the live stream, everyone was pushing the tag higher.

【Who can understand this pain? I was happily watching the live stream, and then a bunch of crazy people showed up and scared my wife away.】

【How is the production team this unprofessional? Did they not plan for this in advance?】

【How could they not have planned for it? The other three groups were well-protected. At the end of the day, they just don’t care because our Xiao Bai is a rookie with no backing.】

—

Because of this mess, the hot search was now flooded with people criticizing the production team and Director Liu. Director Liu felt like he was about to go bald from stress.

It wasn’t that he was unprofessional—he had simply underestimated how explosively popular Bai Siyi and Huo Xingming had become.

This was only their first day meeting each other, and they were already being swarmed by fans?

Wasn’t this way too fast? According to his expectations, it should’ve taken at least two or three days before fans started trying to “accidentally run into them” offline.

Bai Siyi and Huo Xingming were finally sent back to the Pink House by the production team.

It was already past 8 o’clock. When Bai Siyi got out of the car, he looked at Huo Xingming. “Do you want to come in and rest for a bit, or are you heading straight back?”

Huo Xingming glanced at Bai Siyi and clearly saw four words in his eyes: Go straight back.

Huo Xingming: “…”

Feeling utterly deflated, Huo Xingming mumbled, “I guess I’ll just head back first.”

Bai Siyi nodded, still wrapping his coat around himself. “Then send me a message when you get home. Good night, bye.”

And just like that, Huo Xingming was dismissed.

With his head down, he got back into the car. The staff noticed his low spirits and were surprised—after all, Huo Xingming had always been carefree and rarely looked this down.

A staff member asked, “Mr. Huo, are you feeling okay?”

Huo Xingming glanced at the camera and sighed. “Not really, it’s just…”

“Oh my god!”

Before he could finish, a staff member suddenly gasped in shock.

They stared at Huo Xingming in disbelief. “Mr. Huo! Your tattoo is gone!”

Huo Xingming: “…”

Forcing a smile, he said, “Thanks. If you hadn’t pointed it out, I might have never noticed for the rest of my life.”

Staff: “…”

The camera was still recording, and after the initial shock, the staff couldn’t hold back their laughter.

One of them asked, “Mr. Huo… does this mean Xiao Bai already knows?”

Huo Xingming sighed. “Yeah, and… he seems really mad about it?”

The staff thought to themselves—Of course, he’s mad!

Anyone in his shoes would be upset, right?

Xiao Bai had a good temper. If it had been someone else, they might have blocked Huo Xingming on the spot.

But then again, the only reason Xiao Bai hadn’t blocked him was because of their contract. Besides, Xiao Bai had also disguised himself as a woman and deceived Huo Xingming.

In fact, the staff felt like this was fair—both of them had tricked each other. When the truth finally came out, neither of them would have the right to blame the other. They were equally at fault.

Meanwhile, Huo Xingming was already feeling guilty. He had deceived Bai Siyi and made him angry—so tomorrow, he absolutely had to go to the construction site and “move bricks.”

He didn’t even dare to imagine what would happen if Xiao Bai found out that the whole “moving bricks” story was just another lie.

Would he get killed on the spot?

Just the thought of it made Huo Xingming feel unbearably guilty.